Comparison of the Efficacy and Mechanisms for MBCT and CT for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Chronic Pain
CompletedPhase 1, Phase 2NCT02012439
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This study has no listed site in Canada in this snapshot. It is included as part of the worldwide chronic pain corpus.
Brief summary (from the registry)
Chronic pain is a pervasive, serious problem for many individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) that is typically inadequately treated by medications alone. There is a critical need to develop and evaluate innovative psychosocial interventions that have the capacity to effectively target the multidimensional nature of MS pain. Cognitive Therapy (CT) is one psychosocial treatment that has been found to be a potentially beneficial treatment for chronic MS pain. This approach teaches patients to identify and replace unhelpful thoughts about pain with helpful, more adaptive thoughts. In addition, over the past decade there has been a steady upsurge of research examining mindfulness meditation-based therapies for the treatment of medical conditions, including symptoms associated with MS. Mindfulness mediation involves training the mind to disengage from automatic thinking patterns to mindfully perceive, in a non-judgmental manner, one's moment-to-moment experiences. This meditation technique teaches patients to become aware of thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations and to recognize that these are transient experiences that can be mindfully perceived, accepted and let go. A promising, more recent trend in treatment development research is the integration of tradition CT with mindfulness-based meditation, an approach referred to as Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). To date, we are the only research group that has adapted and tested a manualized MBCT approach for the treatment of painful medical conditions. Thus, the proposed pilot randomized controlled trial aims to utilize state-of-the-art research methodology to evaluate traditional Cognitive Therapy (CT) compared to an innovative, newly developed Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) protocol for the treatment of chronic pain in individuals with multiple sclerosis. This study will answer three primary questions: (1) Do these treatments work to improve chronic pain for individuals with MS and do these …
Study details
- Official title
- The Efficacy and Mechanisms of Cognitive Therapy Compared to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Pain
- Conditions
- Interventions
- Behavioral: Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
- Behavioral: Cognitive Therapy
- Sponsor
- University of Washington
- Collaborators
- National Multiple Sclerosis Society
- Start date
- 2013-10
- Primary completion
- 2015-04
- Sex
- All
- Age range
- from 18 Years to 100 Years
- Results posted
- No results posted in this snapshot
- Countries
- United States
- Total sites listed
- 1
Eligibility criteria
Show eligibility criteria (verbatim from the registry)
Inclusion Criteria: 1. Diagnosis of MS obtained by ICD coding list 2. At least 6 months post-diagnosis. 3. At least 18 years old. 4. Read, speak and understand English. 5. Experience chronic pain on a daily basis. 6. Most significant pain problem(s) is or are related to MS. 7. Report an average pain intensity of at least 4 on a 0-10 Numerical Scale in the past week. 8. Most significant pain problem(s) has or have lasted at least six months. 9. Experience ongoing pain with an average intensity of 4 or more on a 0-10 scale when they experience pain.\* 10. Have internet access on a daily basis. Exclusion Criteria: 1\. Psychiatric condition or symptoms that would interfere with participation, specifically active suicidal ideation with intent to harm oneself or active delusional or psychotic thinking \-
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02012439